A Little Bit of Me, Myself and I

Winter is always a tough time of year for my brain. It’s bitterly cold, dark and there is not much going on in my life. I always end up in some kind of mid-winter slump where I feel lazy and unproductive. That time has arrived. Getting out of bed is hard, getting up the motivation to go to the gym is hard, getting up the motivation to not just slouch around the house is hard. Time to get serious about combating this winter “blah.”

Solutions:

1. Every week I will go to the gym at least 3 times

2. I will begin reading for at least 15 minutes a day

3. I will maximize my intake of water and homemade food, eating junk doesn’t help

4. I will maintain a positive attitude and look for ways to express myself in a meaningful way that doesn’t contribute to sinking deeper in the hole

Today I was lucky enough to observe that my previously unnamed purple plant was flowering! I quickly posted a picture of it on Instagram and Facebook (as any well-behaved millennial would) and was pleased to find a comment explaining that the name of my plant was Oxalis Triangularis. I’m no scientist, but I am always happy to know the details of the plants I take care of. This little guy is apparently often referred to as the “love plant” or “false clover.” I learned a little bit more about it from the Wikipedia article here. I have always enjoyed how the plant seems to wake up in the morning as its leave open up with the rising sun, giving it a personality and making me not feel so terrible on those early, dark winter mornings! Has anyone here ever raised this plant? If so, share your experience and pictures in the comments below!

I was lucky to finally figure out the name of this plant thanks to posting it on Facebook!

February 2nd is a very special day in the city of Salvador! Today is the day in which many of the residents of this great city make a pilgrimage to the beaches in the neighborhood of Rio Vermelho to pay their respects to Iemanja, the goddess of the sea in the religion of Candomble. I was lucky enough to be able to make this pilgrimage back in 2012 and still remember the intertwining smells of soap, flowers and the salt of the sea along the beach. The crowd of white-clad people moves as a single body, exhaling people from the crowd as they reach out to throw their gift into the sea and inhaling them back into the multitude as soon as they have finished.

I took some photos of the festival and shared them on my Facebook page. If you would like to see those pictures, view the album here!

If you’re curious to learn more about this festival and can read Portuguese, check out the Wikipedia article here!

Image taken on my Samsung Galaxy s4 from the Main St. bridge in Columbus, OH over the Scioto River.An image I snapped on my phone of the Downtown Columbus cityscape on a mid-winter afternoon.While having pizza I snapped a quick pic of the water whirling around the cup. I found it pleasing to the senses for some reason.The middle of winter in Ohio brings the lovely cold we all dread seeing. The small pond in front of my office building began to freeze over and I really liked the contrast of the ripples to the the stillness of the ice.

Greetings and welcome to my personal blog! I have tried to create and maintain a blog at several other times in the past and have never really gotten anywhere with it. Will this time really be any different? Let’s hope! This will initially be a testing ground for some ideas I have for separate blogs as well, so stick with me as we navigate these uncharted waters (at least for me.) Argh!